One of the more bizarre rituals on the Left is the self-criticism session. The Chinese called them Struggle Sessions. The difference is probably cultural. Oriental societies have always maintained a dense wall between the public life of a person and the interior life of a person. We have the word inscrutable for a reason.

Western culture has often, but not always, sought a strong link between the public man and his private thoughts. In the West, “what you see is what you get” makes a lot of sense for this reason. In China, such a concept is hilariously alien. Still, the idea of confession as a cleanser is a universal.

The NBA is going through that now. Donald Sterling’s threat to dish dirt on the league has frightened them into a careful re-examination of their private musings. Given how modern management works, the league office probably instructed each team to scour their networks for any communications that could be upsetting to blacks. Now we have a GM subjected to a struggle session. His crime was the same one tripping up everyone these days. That would be noticing.

It was Charles Murray who documented that regulations tend to come along after the threat had dissipated. In other words, once people became aware of some danger they adjusted their behavior. It was only after that government came along with rules intended to mitigate the danger. Something similar is afoot here. It seems that most people are looking at the public hysteria over these thought crimes and wondering if the rulers have lost their minds.

Maybe these latent struggle sessions are a response to the public’s dwindling interest in race or maybe it a foreshadowing of what lies ahead for all of us. Unless you have brain damage, you can’t help but notice that life for black Americans is pretty good. If you avoid crime, drugs and mayhem, you will have a good life. You may not get rich, but you can have a decent middle-class life. Most of the nation’s celebrities are black. All of the athletes are black. They live like royalty. Evidence of real discrimination is impossible to find without a lot of digging and imagination.